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ometimes problems create solidarity — as evinced by the spirit of the canoeing teams of seven countries participating in the 26th SEA Games in Cipule Lake in Karawang, West Java.

During a visit to the lake on Wednesday, Youth and Sports Minister Andi Mallarangeng triumphantly boasted to reporters and officials that the lake was ready for the upcoming water sport competitions, which would include canoeing, kayaking, rowing and dragon boat races.

“In Lake Cipule, Indonesia now has a great and modern rowing arena that complies with the international standards,” he said.

While Andi is technically correct, and many observers conceded that the lake was indeed magnificent to behold, the remoteness of the venue has led to another problem for foreign athletes and officials.

Chairat Sripetchdee, a Thai official, said on Wednesday that the Thai canoeing team’s biggest concern was getting lost or stuck in traffic jam on the way from the hotel to the lake.

“We need one-and-a-half hours to get here by bus from the hotel,” Chairat told The Jakarta Post by Lake Cipule, while watching several Thai athletes rowing canoes on the lake.

“If it were only half an hour, that would be fine. But one-and-a-half hours? That’s just too long,” he said.

Chairat, like many other canoe paddlers and officials competing in this year’s SEA Games, is staying at the Horison Hotel in Bekasi, which is around 55 kilometers away from the lake.

The lake is located in Mulyasari village in Karawang regency, around 70 kilometers (a 90 minute to two-hour drive) to the east of Jakarta. The fastest way to reach the lake from Jakarta is via the Jakarta-Cikampek toll road, exiting at the Karawang Timur toll gate.

The last 10 kilometers of the route is along a narrow two-way road along the Kalimalang River. The road is just wide enough to accommodate two mid-size cars or one mini bus.

There are no clear road signs to the lake.

From the Post’s observation of the route on Wednesday, there were only two signpost banners along the 70-kilometer route, both of which were not clearly visible to traffic coming from from the direction of Jakarta.

A member of the Singaporean canoe team said that these problems had forced their team to put on their thinking caps to come up with contingency plans for worst-case transportation scenarios.

The official said that athletes and officials from all seven countries participating in the canoe races had decided to leave the hotel together in one group and go to Lake Cipule in convoy on competition days.

“That way, if one gets lost, everybody gets lost. If one gets stuck in a traffic jam, everybody gets stuck,” said the official, who wished to remain anonymous.

Thus, no one would arrive first at the venue, leaving others behind and risking disqualification, she
explained.

“It’s all about being together with your friends, really, in goodness and in bad; and what is that if not the Southeast Asian spirit?” she added, laughing heartily. (mim)